2014 goals and aspirations Wednesdaily

I hope everyone had a great new year's eve and sending you all the best for 2014.For this new year, what are your running goals and aspirations? And what is scheduled for this first day of the year to accomplish these goals?

My #1 goal is to complete the marathon in May with a BQ. At this point just BQ'ing will be a challenge for me and the thought of having to be out on the course 30-40 minutes longer than the last time I ran one is daunting, but I am working hard to be grateful that I am once again healthy enough to run consistently, even if my body is not capable of what it was in the past. My #2 goal is to complete a 50k on the trails...no time goals, I just want to finish. My #3 goal is to run the trail half marathon I ran last August faster than last year.

WotD

I am going to run 11 miles later today. My 5k last night was by far my slowest of the year, but it was still a good workout . I got in 8 miles total and I was primarily out there to get in a little faster running, while having fun with other runners, which I did.

QOTD - my goal for the year is to remain injury free and be able to run as much as I want without forced interruptions. My performance goal for the first half of the year is to run a 2:5x marathon in Boston; I haven't yet decided what I would focus on for the second half of the year.

WOTD - the morning looks like an SRD, I might decide to do something later in the afternoon - yoga, bike, or a short run.

QOTD: My goals are to run more miles this year than last, to PR at a marathon (tentatively targeting the OC Marathon on May 4), to run at least one race that I've never done before, and to stay injury-free and healthy. I also vowed to not be sucked into the Beach Cities Challenge again - looks like I'll achieve that goal since I haven't registered for Surf City and my current budget situation will keep me from doing so.

WOTD: 5 miles (still fighting this stupid cold - but at least I had a good night's sleep thanks to NyQuil.)

2)Improve my Half time (to align with Mcmillan's BQ-5). My SD Holiday Half last Sunday was 30secs off my Half PR, a minute off Mcmillan's. My training for it was not optimal, but happy that I still managed to run what I ran. The course had a lot of downhills and flats which according to what I've read is like M2B.

3) I hope that goals 1 & 2 get me to my ultimate goal, BQ-5 at M2B.

WOTD: Maybe some walking or easy miles, quads still a bit sore from Sunday's downhills.

Hope everyone had a great NY celebration.

Had a great NY eve get together with the usual suspects: Thanks HG & RiP for having us!

Also, find the home-life balance between racing enough and racing too much. So far, I have two marathons (BOS/NYC), one half, two 10Ks and a 5K with my 6 y/o on the calendar. I'll add more if something pops up locally, specifically looking to add another 2-3 halves.

WOTD: 9.65 @ 9:19. Resolution run with the Redlands Runegades up to Zanja Peak from Crafton Hills College. 4.6 up (10:31, 10:31, 9:41, 9:28, 11:54), 5 down (added on .4, 9:49, 8:20, 7:43, 7:24, 7:06). Heard a group of guys behind me at mile 6, so I worked on downhill form so I could fly. Great showing of folks out - I think we had close to 40-50 runners!

QOTD: To get back to some semblance of doing training runs on a regular basis. I lost my motivation for that last year. Last Saturday I did get out on the roads for a short, untimed run, and it felt great at the time. The downside right now is that I've starting having intermittent issues with my ankles and feet that I'm thinking must be the beginnings of arthritis, so that is looking to be another challenge for me to overcome.

WOTD: Hmm, nothing yet. My DH wants to take another walk out by the swamps this afternoon. I told him I would do it but prefer to have a tall can of beer in lieu of wine this time around -- had way too much wine this past Monday. I had hoped to get out to my running club's informal walk/run at noon today, but that didn't happen.

Also feeling bummed about our Monday night bowling league. After the ice storm pre-empted our championship match, I had been trying to find out from the alley whether our league was planning to re-schedule for this past Monday night. As of Sunday afternoon, no one there could tell me anything -- they just took my name and number and said someone would get back to us. No one did, and then last night our teammate sent me a text to tell me he had just been informed that we were supposed to bowl this past Monday night ...

I intend to go to the alley in person tomorrow to see what is up with that and find out whether there is an opportunity to do a make-up session, or at least get the phone number of our league president to explain how their lack of communication created a fubar experience where no one knew what was going on. If we had been out of contention, I would be handling this better but heck, we were tied for first place and wanted to at least try for a win.

All good now. League secretary called this afternoon, and we are on for Friday afternoon to try to avenge our spot.

QOTD:3,120 miles, two or three 100 mile finishes including AC100 & Javelina Jundred, 2.5 hours of cross training per week, 15 pound weight loss and a BQ marathon, likely at CIM as I'll get 10 extra minutes and just need a sub 3:25 if I wait until after mid September.

This is a but of a scoop...the Big Cottonwood Marathon race directors are close to finalizing a similarly fast extreme downhill marathon that would start high in the San Gabriel Mountains and be a straight shot down Highway 39 and finish in Azusa. I do hope this would be a late Fall marathon for this year but they'll have to hurry up if they are to get it done for this year. If it does happen, I'd do it instead of CIM.

DAILY:

2.00 miles later with my Corgis.

WOYD:16.20 miles including 15.15 very hilly miles @ 8:57/mile. I needed 15.15 miles to hit 3,000.00 miles for the year and risked my Achilles to get it. Fortunately, other than a hug fade over the last 5k, I felt good. Averaged 8:30/mile for first 7 miles despite climbing over 100' per mile for that section but that left me positive splitting my run despite the largely downhill second half.

QOTD: Well staying healthy and keeping consistent is of course the key to any goal, so maybe that's a goal in and of itself? Don't know what's realistic for the year, but sub-30 for 10,000m should be in the cards. Beyond that, let's just wait and see

WOTD: 10 easy. knee/hip feeling WAY better than yesterday, but not 100%, so likely another easy day tomorrow.

Runscal: Well I'm not as young (turned 27 3 weeks ago) as being on a JC track team would necessarily imply. (However, there were other "older" JC athlete as well.) Very long story short, I only made the team at UC Davis (Go Ags!) for one season, so I still had 1 season of JC eligibility. My local JC hired a new head coach who just happened to be a former HS teammate of mine, and a new distance coach who just happened to be a co-worker at Heart & Sole. AsI was going to take some classes to get back in the academic swing of things pre-grad-school anyways, I joined the team, as I knew these guys would make me incredibly fit (which they did), and I wanted to help them start their time at the program with a bang.

QOTD: run a sub1:40 half (I'm thinking this is a bit overdue at present), but no other set time goals. Enjoy Boston and have a post-race celebration. Complete my first half iron-distance tri (scheduled for late July). And ideally run a 100 miler in the fall (race to still be determined). Continue to create and meet new challenges.

QOTD: I have lots of things to accomplish but first on my list is a sub 20:00 for a 5K which will happen (how about that confidence) at the Carlsbad 5000. It will be the first time I have ever raced a 5K although I did pace a friend before. After that I will be looking at a PR in a half somewhere after I feel I am trained for that distance. I do expect a few niggles on the way but my hope is no more than 2-3 days off running at a time.

WOTD: 7 miles w/ a few 300-600 meter pick-ups and then back home for 2.5 miles w/ Tate.

Another 3 miles with Tate this afternoon and heading to a Yoga class shortly.

rfl - Thanks for the explanation. That would have been fun to run college track or cross country. I think maybe I should have looked into that a bit more instead of hitting the small white ball around the turf in hopes it goes into the 4" hole.

WOTD: 13 miles, with a bunch of loops near the end of the Rose Parade route. I am not a big fan of the parade. But since I live within a couple of miles of the end of the route, I thought I'd add some variety to my run. I did see a few floats and bands. Running behind the crowd reminded me of running a marathon - except that the spectators all had their backs to me!